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Lusa - Business News - Cabo Verde: Mindelo hosts Oceans Summit with UN chief, Portugal PM![]()
Mindelo, Cabo Verde, Jan. 23,2023 (Lusa) - The Cabo Verde city of Mindelo is on Monday hosting the Oceans Summit, which will be opened by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, with the participation of the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, and the prospect of converting debt into environmental investments. "We need justice for those who, like Cabo Verde, have done practically nothing to cause this crisis, but are paying a very high price because of it. Cabo Verde has demonstrated climate leadership in words and actions," said UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday after meeting with Cabo Verde's prime minister in Mindelo, Sao Vicente island. The prime minister of Portugal, António Costa, will also attend this summit, on sustainable finance and oceans. Looking ahead to the importance of the visit to Cabo Verde, the United Nations secretary-general said the time was ripe for "more solidarity" and a "greater sense of urgency and more ambition". "I am deeply frustrated that world leaders are not responding to this emergency, a life or death emergency, with the necessary action and investment. We are facing the fight of our lives and sadly we are losing it," António Guterres said. "Emissions continue to increase, temperatures keep rising, we are about to exceed the 1.5 degree limit and if nothing is done on the way, towards, 2.8 degrees of global warming by the end of the century. It would be a catastrophe of devastating consequences. Several parts of our planet would be uninhabitable, particularly in Africa, and for many, this would be a death sentence," he stressed. The United Nations Secretary-General will make the opening speech at the Ocean Summit, included in the Cabo Verde leg (20 to 25 January) of the Ocean Race, the world's largest and oldest regatta, after 09:00 local time (10:00 in Lisbon), focused on the urgency of climate change and specifically on the front line that are the oceans and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), such as Cabo Verde. The opening of the summit, which will take place at the Ocean Science Centre Mindelo, also includes the speech of the Cabo Verde prime minister, Ulisses Correia e Silva, and the Portuguese prime minister, António Costa, followed by several panels with Cabo Verde and international politicians, experts, sportsmen and environmentalists. The summit programme also includes the signing between the governments of Cabo Verde and Portugal of a memorandum of understanding to convert debt into a Climate and Environment Fund. "We will sign a memorandum of understanding regarding the transformation of state-to-state debt, Cabo Verde and Portugal, to be applied to investments that increase Cabo Verde's resilience. In essence, it is the feeding of the Climate and Environment Fund, through a contribution from Portugal, hoping that there will be contributions from other bilateral and multilateral partners," Ulisses Correia e Silva told Lusa on Thursday. The Cabo Verde prime minister stressed that this agreement represents "an example" and "a very strong commitment", especially given the effects that the archipelago is already facing with climate change, including a prolonged drought since 2016, in addition to the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of the inflationary crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine. "For a long time now and every time there have been COP [United Nations Climate Change Conferences], there have been several, several initiatives. The issue of climate finance has always been on the table. We are building a very good solution here, because it is an investment, a financing, for increased resilience and increased capacity of the country to overcome situations of eventual crises. This is much stronger in its development path," said Correia e Silva. According to Cabo Verde government data from 2021, Cabo Verde's debt to Portugal then amounted to more than €600 million. "The memorandum does not set the figures, it sets the mechanisms. Portugal and Cabo Verde will work towards the creation of this Climate and Environment Fund, according to the principle of transforming the bilateral debt between the two countries into environmental and climate funding, namely energy transition, funding to ensure the conditions for protection of biodiversity, also of our maritime area, the issue associated with the protection of biodiversity conservation also on land, the entire policy also associated with water," he added. PVJ/AYLS // AYLS Lusa Agency : LUSA Date : 2023-01-24 10:21:00
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